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Boy with tetanus improving in hospital: health unit

Public health says the local child who contracted tetanus from a nail wound is improving in hospital.

The six-year-old boy from Grey-Bruce has been moved out of the intensive care unit at a London hospital and into a pediatric medical bed, according to Grey Bruce Health Unit spokesman Drew Ferguson.

The child had suffered a puncture wound to his foot from a nail about 10 days before he started to show symptoms of tetanus, the health unit has said.

It is the only recorded case of the disease in Grey-Bruce and the first in Ontario this year. The child was not immunized against it.

The serious disease, which occurs on average once a year in Ontario, happens when tetanus spores get into a cut or puncture wound. The spores are found everywhere in soil, dust and manure.

Tetanus causes cramping of the muscles in the neck, arms, legs and stomach and may also cause painful convulsions. The spasms can be so severe that people can break bones and even stop breathing.

Even with early treatment, tetanus has a fatality rate of about 20%, with the highest rates found in infants and the elderly. Also called lockjaw, the disease becomes fatal when someone can no longer eat and drink because their jaw locks up.

Medical officer of health Dr. Hazel Lynn told The Sun Times last week that the boy’s family did not seek medical attention as quickly as they could have and it is believed the toxin spread through the child’s body.

There is no risk to anyone who may have come in contact with the child because the disease is not spread from person to person.